Kansas payroll setup for your first hire

Kansas takes state income tax from paychecks. Those amounts sit with the Department of Revenue, not KDOL.

Kansas takes state income tax from paychecks. This is not Texas, Florida, Washington, Tennessee, or Nevada. Those states do not take state income tax from paychecks. A federal Employee’s Withholding Certificate (Form W-4) is not the Kansas certificate.

KDOR is the income-tax office. The KW-100 withholding guide says a shop that must withhold federal income tax must also withhold Kansas tax. The same guide says you do not apply for a Kansas withholding number until you have employees working in Kansas, or you must withhold on a Kansas payment. Register on the KDOR Customer Service Center. Pub. KS-1216 is the Business Tax Application booklet. Paper shops use Form CR-16. After the file processes, KDOR assigns a 15-character Kansas Tax Account Number. The wage-withholding prefix is 036, then the federal EIN, then a suffix. Hold that number. A federal EIN is not that number. A KDOL unemployment number is not that number either. That is not a 15-day California registration clock. Do not copy that clock onto Kansas.

Employees complete Form K-4, Kansas Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate. The Form K-4 stays with the employer. The federal W-4 is not that Kansas certificate. If a worker skips Form K-4, KW-100 says withhold at the single rate with no allowances. File later deposits as Form KW-5, Withholding Tax Deposit Report. File the annual return as Form KW-3. W-2s go to workers and to KDOR. Use the live KDOR tables, not a number from a software page.

The Employer Toolkit tells shops that must withhold Kansas tax to finish the business tax application before the first wage payment. The withholding guide still says do not apply until Kansas work, or a Kansas withholding duty, has started. Confirm the live start on KW-100 and on the Customer Service Center. A withholding number is not an unemployment number.

When you owe unemployment: $1,500 in a quarter, or one person in 20 weeks. File the status report in 15 days.

KDOL collects state unemployment tax. That tax is often called SUTA, state unemployment tax, or SUI, state unemployment insurance. The Employer Handbook restates the regular-shop test. You become liable if you pay $1,500 or more in wages in a calendar quarter, or at least one worker performs services in some portion of a day in each of 20 different calendar weeks in the current or preceding year. You may also elect an unemployment account at the first registration. K.S.A. 44-703 prints the same $1,500-quarter or 20-week pair. Domestic shops use a $1,000-quarter cash-wage test. Agricultural shops use $20,000 cash wages in a quarter, or 10 people in 20 weeks. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit becomes liable at four workers in 20 weeks. A shop already liable for federal unemployment tax, often called FUTA, the Federal Unemployment Tax Act, is an employer here. This scorecard is the regular-business path.

Every employing unit that starts Kansas work must file Form K-CNS 010, the Status Report, within 15 days of paying the first employee. The handbook and the employer forms page print that 15-day clock. KDOL then decides whether the shop is liable. This 15-day status report is not California’s 15-day Employment Development Department clock. There is no $100-in-a-quarter test on the Kansas handbook page. Do not copy that clock onto Kansas. This is not Arkansas’s ten-day test. This is not Oregon’s $1,000-quarter or 18-week test. This is not Indiana’s $1 covered-wage test. This is not Nevada’s $225-quarter test. This is not Utah’s one-person, some-portion-of-a-day clock. This is not Maryland’s one-worker Combined Registration Application clock. Minnesota tells shops not to register unemployment until covered wages have actually been paid. Louisiana Works tells every shop that pays Louisiana wages to apply within 30 days, even if the shop is not yet liable. Kansas’s 15-day K-CNS 010 clock starts after the first Kansas paycheck. Do not copy Louisiana’s 30-day apply-even-if-not-liable clock onto Kansas. Do not treat Kansas like a no-withholding state.

The handbook says a liable shop receives a ten-digit Employer Account Number, often called EAN. Software pages also call that number a SEIN, State Employer Identification Number. Hold the number. Do not substitute a federal EIN for that number. Do not substitute the 15-character Kansas Tax Account Number. A withholding number is not required before you file the status report.

Register unemployment on KansasLabor.gov. File later wage reports in the same portal.

KansasLabor.gov is the Department of Labor employer portal. The employer-services page sends a new shop to that Employer Self Service Portal to register, keep the unemployment account, file the quarterly wage return, and pay the tax. File Form K-CNS 010 on that portal, not a software checklist. Paper shops still use the Status Report on the forms page.

After the account exists, file the quarterly contribution and wage report. That report is Form K-CNS 100, Employer’s Quarterly Wage Report and Unemployment Tax Return. The handbook and the unemployment-tax page say those files are due by the last day of the month after the quarter: April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31. If that date falls on a weekend or holiday, the due date is the next business day. KDOL does not mail a due-date reminder. A shop with 26 or more employees must file online. A shop with 25 or fewer may still mail Form K-CNS 100. A quarterly wage report is not the new-hire report. Use the due date on the live KDOL notice, not a date from a software page.

The employer-services page prints the 2026 new-employer unemployment rate as 1.75% of taxable wages. Construction shops use 5.55%. The 2026 taxable wage base is $15,100. The handbook restates those new-shop rates. After three years, if liability began before July 1, the rate follows experience. If liability began after June 30, the computed rate waits four years. Experience rates later range from 0% to 6.95% on the 2026 schedule. Use the rate on your live KDOL notice, not a number from a software page. That printed 1.75% is not Mississippi’s 1.00% first-year rate. It is not Connecticut’s 1.9% new-shop rate. It is not Alabama’s flat 2.70% new-account rate. It is not Nevada’s 2.95% new-shop rate.

New hire is a 20-day Kansas New Hire Directory report. A K-CNS 100 wage report does not take it.

The new-hire report is a list of who you just hired. It is not a box on the quarterly unemployment wage report. In Kansas that report goes to the same Department of Labor that collects unemployment tax, not to a separate child-support portal. The new-hire reporting page requires the report within 20 days of hire, or rehire after at least 60 consecutive days off. File with the Kansas New Hire Directory. The preferred form is Form K-CNS 436. File on KansasLabor.gov under New Hires. A shop may also mail or fax a W-4, a K-4, or Form K-CNS 436. The Employer Toolkit restates that 20-day clock and the ten-digit Employer Account Number on the file.

K.S.A. 75-5743 requires each employer to send that report to the secretary of labor within 20 business days of the hiring, rehiring, or return to work, or within 20 business days from the first wages. The agency page prints the same duty as 20 days. Use the live New Hire Directory clock. A quarterly K-CNS 100 wage report does not satisfy that clock. The new-hire page says the quarterly file can sit two to six months late. This is not Mississippi’s 15-day Department of Human Services report. This is not Alabama’s seven-day Department of Workforce report. This is not Georgia’s 10-day report. This is not Massachusetts’s 14-day Department of Revenue report. Most peer states use a 20-day clock. Kansas’s 20-day clock sits with KDOL, not a different child-support website.

Workplace injury insurance is due over $20,000 payroll. The Division of Workers Compensation does not sell the policy.

This is not Kentucky’s, Connecticut’s, Louisiana’s, Oklahoma’s, or Nevada’s first-employee path. It is not Mississippi’s, Alabama’s, or Tennessee’s five-employee wait. It is not Arkansas’s, Georgia’s, North Carolina’s, or Virginia’s three-employee wait. It is not Florida’s or South Carolina’s four-employee wait. It is not Wisconsin’s three-employee or $500-quarter path. It is not Texas optional coverage. It is not Washington’s exclusive state fund. It is not Ohio’s Bureau of Workers’ Compensation monopoly. Kansas calls this workers’ compensation.

The employer-services page says Kansas law covers every shop, no matter the headcount or the kind of work, with two regular-shop exceptions. Agricultural work sits outside that line. A shop whose estimated payroll for the year stays at $20,000 or less also sits outside that line, unless the shop is a subcontractor. K.S.A. 44-505 restates the agricultural exception and the $20,000 payroll exception. Family wages do not count toward that $20,000 line. A brand-new shop that reasonably estimates it will stay under $20,000 this year also sits outside that regular-shop line. This scorecard is the regular-business path once payroll crosses $20,000.

The Division of Workers Compensation does not sell that policy. The employer-services page says the State of Kansas pays no workplace-injury benefit unless the injured person is a state employee. Ordinary first-hire shops buy a licensed private policy, join a group-funded pool, or qualify to self-insure with the Director of Workers Compensation. The Kansas Insurance Department approves group pools. A payroll login is not a policy.

How Gusto and Patriot describe Kansas

Confirm the live Kansas Tax Account Number on the KDOR Customer Service Center. Confirm the unemployment Employer Account Number and rate on KansasLabor.gov and on the KDOL notice. Confirm workplace injury insurance with a licensed carrier. Confirm the 20-day new-hire file with the Kansas New Hire Directory.

Gusto’s Kansas help article says Middesk (Gusto’s business-verification company) may register state income-tax withholding and state unemployment insurance (SUI). It names the Department of Revenue for withholding and the Department of Labor for unemployment tax. It sends withholding registration to the Kansas online file and says the withholding account can arrive in fewer than five business days. It sends unemployment registration to the Department of Labor and says the account number and rate can arrive at once online, or in two to three weeks by mail. Kansas is on Gusto’s list of states that mail tax-account letters to the shop. Forward that letter when it arrives. The article lists Form K-CNS 100, Form KW-5, Form KW-3, the state W-2, and the Kansas new-hire report among Kansas files. It also asks for third-party access, called TPA, with the Department of Labor. Middesk’s standard order does not open workplace injury insurance. Read Gusto’s Kansas help article. See Gusto on the directory.

Patriot’s registration article tells new shops to register withholding with the Department of Revenue on the Kansas Business Center and to register unemployment with the Department of Labor. The official withholding guide names the KDOR Customer Service Center, not a separate Business Center login. The same article prints a 1.75% new-employer SUTA rate for 2026, and 5.55% for new construction shops. Those printed rates match the KDOL employer-services page. Use the rate on your live KDOL notice, not a number from a software page. The article tells employees to complete Form K-4. It puts the 20-day new-hire report on the Department of Labor. The official pages send that report to the Kansas New Hire Directory. One section of the article restates the $20,000 payroll workplace-injury exception. A later section says coverage is due if you have at least one employee, through a private provider or a state-operated fund. The $20,000 line matches K.S.A. 44-505 and the employer-services page. The one-employee line and the state-operated-fund line are what the software page says. The Division of Workers Compensation does not sell that policy. The ordinary path is a licensed private policy, a group-funded pool, or approved self-insurance. It is not a Washington-style exclusive state fund. Read Patriot’s registration article. See Patriot on the directory.

What still sits on the employer

• File Form K-CNS 010 within 15 days of paying the first Kansas employee, even before KDOL decides the shop is liable.
• Decide that the $1,500-quarter test, or the 20-week test, has been met. Domestic, agricultural, nonprofit, successor, Federal Unemployment Tax, government, and tribal paths use other tests.
• Complete KansasLabor.gov so the Department of Labor can issue the ten-digit Employer Account Number after the status report.
• Hold the Employer Account Number. Software pages also call that number a SEIN. Do not substitute a federal EIN for that number. Do not substitute the Kansas Tax Account Number.
• Enter the unemployment rate from the live KDOL notice, not a marketing figure. KDOL prints a 1.75% new-employer rate, a 5.55% new-construction rate, and a $15,100 wage base for 2026. Confirm the live notice.
• File the quarterly unemployment wage report, Form K-CNS 100, after the account exists. Those reports are due the last day of the month after the quarter. KDOL does not mail a reminder.
• Register withholding on the KDOR Customer Service Center when Kansas work, or a Kansas withholding duty, has started. Collect Form W-4 and Form K-4. A federal W-4 is not the Kansas certificate. File Form KW-5 on the frequency KDOR assigns.
• File the 20-day new-hire report with the Kansas New Hire Directory. A quarterly K-CNS 100 wage report does not satisfy that clock.
• Buy workplace injury insurance when regular-shop payroll crosses the $20,000 line in K.S.A. 44-505. Agricultural work and a shop that stays under that line sit outside that regular-shop duty. The Division of Workers Compensation does not sell that policy. Payroll software does not issue that policy.
• Do not copy another state’s clock onto Kansas. Kansas does not use California’s $100-quarter test. Kansas does not use Nevada’s $225-quarter test. Kansas does not use Utah’s one-person, some-portion-of-a-day unemployment clock. Kansas does not use Arkansas’s ten-day unemployment test. Kansas does not use Oregon’s $1,000-quarter or 18-week unemployment test. Kansas does not use Indiana’s $1 unemployment test. Kansas does not use Maryland’s one-worker Combined Registration Application clock. Kansas does not wait to register unemployment the way Minnesota waits for covered wages. Kansas does not print Louisiana’s 30-day apply-even-if-not-liable clock. Kansas does not skip the 15-day K-CNS 010 after the first paycheck. Kansas does not skip state paycheck withholding the way Texas, Florida, Washington, Tennessee, or Nevada do. Kansas does not open withholding on Taxpayer Access Point or Form TC-69 the way Utah does. Kansas does not use Mississippi’s 15-day new-hire clock. Kansas does not use Alabama’s seven-day new-hire clock. Kansas does not use Georgia’s 10-day new-hire clock. Kansas does not send the new-hire file to a different child-support website the way Mississippi sends it to the Department of Human Services. Kansas does not use Mississippi’s, Alabama’s, or Tennessee’s five-employee workplace-injury wait. Kansas does not use Arkansas’s three-employee workplace-injury wait. Kansas does not use Florida’s or South Carolina’s four-employee wait. Kansas does not use Kentucky’s first-employee workplace-injury path. Kansas does not use Texas optional coverage. Kansas does not use Washington’s exclusive state fund. Kansas does not use Ohio’s Bureau of Workers’ Compensation monopoly.

Also forming a company in Kansas? Process Score compares registered agents there.